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The Regional Policy from Brussels to the Bulgarian Mayors and Their Electorate |
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Page 2 of 2
The mayors, which have been governing up to now, shall have the answer ready. Ministries, non-governmental organizations, projects and programs kept and still are carrying out targeted trainings on utilization of resources from the European funds for municipal officials. It is only natural that once development strategies and plans have been adopted, ideas already exist for projects aimed at achieving the set goals. There were also the pre-accession programs that outlined the idea about the processes of project planning, application, implementation and reporting. And what is most important, teams have probably already been formed from experts who will work on the seven operational programs, under which non-refundable means will be provided. Therefore, I would expect those mayors to be ready to go and to file applications as soon as the programs start (the Operational Program on Development of Human Resources starts on July 20 and for this year alone 137 million Euro are envisaged; at the same time it is clear that we can not do without qualified staff). If this turns out not to be the case, how shall we utilize the funds to the amount of more than 100 million Euro under each of the programs until the end of the calendar year? I am not suggesting that the municipalities are the only beneficiaries for these funds, nor am I saying that there are no other reasons to justify why the money provided by the European Union will not be entirely utilized. The local businesses and non-governmental organizations also have the potential to support the implementation of the regional policy. A prerequisite for that, however, is that the mayor has established close relations with them and that they have started working in partnership, as the progress made by each of them is a progress for the entire municipality and its population.
If the present mayor has managed to achieve all this, this mayor will be able to answer the question about the utilization of funds allocated for the development of the municipality. Provided someone should ask. If a mayor has failed to take care of the items outlined above, this mayor shall not be running for people’s trust again.
The external candidate for a local government position will also face the need to deal with regional policy. This person may or may not be familiar with expressions such as ‘integrated measures for application of the cohesion policy,’ or ‘polycentrism as a leitmotif of the European territorial strategy’; may or may not know the precise status of the municipal affairs, but this person will have to be aware of the problems of the local people and of the ways to make this municipality an attractive place for living. The first suggestions this candidate makes may be based on the needs and their justification. Resolutions will have to be offered for the residential areas, for transport, for the development of the services network, for encouraging the entrepreneurship, attracting of investments. Answers will have to be provided to the questions about the targeted usage of local resources, development of the strengths of the municipality, and their transformation into competitive advantages as compared to the other municipalities. The candidate should miss neither the development of the human resources and the access to information and knowledge, nor the protection of natural resources and cultural heritage, nor the development of energetic resources and preventive restriction of consequences from natural disasters. In other words, this person will have to explain to the electorate how will the competitiveness of the municipality grow. It is desirable that all those questions receive answers to the satisfaction of the electorate. And it is desirable that the voters chose their favorite according to those answers. Otherwise, no matter how much funds are directed to Bulgaria, no matter how low the per capita GDP is, the money will return to where it came from, and the objectives of the European Union regional policy will reach us only on paper.
Filiz Hyusmenova – MEP, Deputy Chairwoman of the European Parliament Committee on Regional Development
September 2007
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